Check In

I made a goal at the beginning of this year that I was going to write a blog post at least every Sunday. The past two Sundays have come and gone without updates for a very good reason. We moved! Yay! It has been a whirlwind of activity getting everything ready to move and now getting settled in. It went very smoothly (for a move) in large part to the help we had. Rebecca came for about 4 days and then Mom came for another few days. At the time Mom left we were in really good shape to get out of the rental when we had planned. Our first night in our new home was February 14th. It has been as fabulous as we anticipated, maybe even more so. Hooray for happy changes!

Gigi

This was my view on the way home from taking Anne to preschool on Tuesday. It was breathtakingly beautiful. The mountains typically are. Living in the shadows of this majesty is a daily reminder that my Heavenly Father loves me. After snapping this picture (I was parked, just to set aside any worries) I was reminded of one of my favorite hymns.

When through the woods and forest glades I wander
And hear the birds sing sweetly through the trees, 
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur, 
And hear the brook and feel the gently breeze:

Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee,
How great thou art!
How great thou art!

I'm reminded of my grandma when I sing this song. I sang this song with Rachel and Sara at her funeral. I didn't make it through without crying. I don't know if I'll ever make it through the song again without crying.

I miss my grandmother.

I don't know if I ever knew how much she meant to me until she passed away. I don't say that in a regretful tone. Perhaps if I didn't have a knowledge that I will be with her again someday it would be more regretful. Instead that comment is full of gratitude.

Grandma wasn't going to live forever, even though some of us thought she was stubborn enough to try. We knew her time to move on from this life was coming. We didn't know exactly when, but she was aging. She was tired. She was lonely. Her passing wasn't a surprise and it wasn't too soon (if the death of a loved one can ever not be too soon).

Nonetheless, her absence is sometimes suffocating.

My grandmother and I had a special relationship, and she has been an important part of my life. My entire life. Summers, Easters, and Thanksgiving memories are all saturated with time spent at Grandma and Grandpa Williams. I came to Idaho for college and would visit the farm as often as I could find a ride and my schedule permitted me to. Transferring from Ricks to USU made it even more possible to visit Grandma and all the more meaningful, as Grandpa passed away the summer after I graduated from Ricks. Then I married and stayed in the area. Grandma still continued to be there for me and Brandon and I began making farm and Grandma memories together as a family.

She was one of the first people to meet each of my sweet babies.

Meeting William Brandon -- 1/2006

4 generations picture -- 1/2006

Meeting Marie Noelle -- 10/2007

4 generations -- 11/2007

Meeting Anne Kinslee -- 7/2010

Meeting Samuel Kevin -- 5/2012

She had a magic touch with babies. As a child I remember sitting in her house in the evenings. The day had been filled with horseback rides, exploring the haystack and barnyard, jumping on the trampoline, and finding whatever mischief the countryside had to offer. Grandpa would sit in his chair and all the girls would be lined up, freshly bathed and in clean pajamas, waiting for their turn to have their hair brushed and dried. Grandma would, inevitably, have a baby in her arms and she'd be singing to him/her. She never sang real words, just syllables, "la, de, da, da, de da".  Anyone in the room felt safe and warm and protected as they listened to her soothe the baby to sleep.

Safe and warm and protected. That was Grandma's gift to all who were blessed to know her. Since her passing it has been  a time of learning. Learning how to feel her love, even when her physical presence is gone. She's here. She's around. I know because I have felt her presence. However, without ever being able to see her eyes sparkle with love when she looks at me and without being able to hear her laugh and talk and pray, I miss her. I just miss her. And sometimes it is so strong that I am taken back by it. I didn't know I would miss her this much and that is saying something because I knew I would miss her a lot. I am so glad that I miss her. My gratitude for the imprint she left in my life is immense.

So, until we see our blessed Gigi again, I soak up the beautiful mornings when Heavenly Father reminds me that he loves me. I look at the mountains and I remember that Grandma loved them, too. And I say a prayer of gratitude for all that she left behind to remind that she isn't very far away after all.

#awesomeweek

#trainridetoslc

 Santa Claus gifted the kids with a trip to Salt Lake to ice skating. MLK Day seemed like the perfect opportunity to cash in. We decided using trains as our transportation would be right up Sam's alley. He did not disappoint with his excitement.

 Exploring the train made the ride go quickly, a little too quickly for me, we really did have fun hanging out together as we traveled down to Salt Lake.

 Luckily, the fun had just begun! We made a lunch stop at Johnny Rockets and were off to the Gallivan Center after that.

Getting 4 kids and ourselves suited up and ready to go fast enough to appease the 4 excited kids was tricky. And once we were out on the ice I wondered what I was thinking. We were outnumbered and every kid needed help skating.

 It didn't take long for everyone to get into a nice rhythm and pretty soon just Anne and Sam needed some assistance. Sam needed a lot. Anne insisted that she only needed a little.

 I loved watching Anne scoot along the wall, then she would decide to let go and skate a few feet out until she fell. After falling she would attempt to crawl back to the wall so she could get back up.

 Marie was absolutely thrilled to be there. She told me in the morning that she woke up early out of excitement, however, she stayed in bed and tried to sleep longer. She didn't want to be grumpy for her first time ice skating because it was a dream of hers. My favorite part with her was convincing her to let go of the walls holding my hand. Then we went around side by side without holding hands.
"I wouldn't have been brave like that without you getting me to, Mom." Gosh, I love her.

 William went out onto the ice with reckless abandon. I had to get on his case, at first, and remind him that the ice was very hard and eventually he would hurt himself if he kept falling so hard. He calmed down a bit and his falling decreased ... a bit ... I love my wild and crazy boy. I loved watching him out there with no reservations just doing his thing.

 Sam skated and skated and skated, or rather, we pushed him and pushed him and pushed him. He went until he was too tired and then insisted we go for longer. He is determined to keep up with his siblings, sometimes it is much to my dismay. 

 Brandon and I went into the day with pretty low expectations, we have to admit. We were so pleasantly surprised that everything went so well! It was a magically wonderful day with lasting memories. We love our little family!

#krispykremetrip

 The next day the kids were out of school again, except for Anne. While Anne was in preschool I took the others up to Farr West. We toured their new school and acquired the necessary paperwork to transfer them next month. They both agreed that they were equally excited and nervous about the experience. They also both agree that they are going to like their new school. After Farr West we picked up Anne and went to Krispy Kreme. Anne was so cute. I said, "Come on, Anne, let's go get in the car. We're going to go get donuts." "Donuts?! I was good at school that's wise we getting donuts. I was good in school." I'll let her believe that. No harm done.

 I had fed the kids a tiny little breakfast in the rush to get out the door, so donuts were a very welcome treat and they each gobbled down 2 of them. They probably would have kept going, if I'd let them.

#operationmoveagain

 It's hard to grasp the reality that we will be moving in just about 3 weeks. I think it's because our house isn't completely done and because we've watched not only our house but other houses on our street be built and then eventually someone else moves in (not into ours, of course). This is the real deal though and we really will be moving into our new house soooooooo I've begun sorting through some of the stuff that I can (what isn't in storage) in effort to decrease the amount we move by a few boxes. My task this week was to finally sort and file all of the kids school papers into the newly acquired file boxes I found at WalMart. They have one folder for each year of school. My hope is that we can keep them each down to one file box, but I wouldn't be my life on it.

#thestrosbuildahouse

 Hip, hip, hooray for cabinets being installed. Yeehaw! First, it's exciting because, well, the cabinets are in. Second, it's exciting because now the house is ready for countertops and flooring. Yep, flooring goes in this week, too. Monday they will begin the LVP.  Thursday the carpet will be installed.

 

Um, I might be a bit elated to have a dedicated spice cupboard. I might even keep them in alphabetical order, but probably not.

 Our bathroom vanity, I'm not gonna lie, is a bit embarrassing it's so long. It was just the way the layout of the house worked so we could have the size of great room/kitchen that we wanted. I forsee many days with my girls primping themselves in my bathroom. I'm totally okay with that. I think many would put two sinks on a vanity like this, but we decided against it and are putting towers on either side of the single sinks instead. The towers will be installed after the counter tops, of course.

It's getting real, folks, and I can't wait!

See ya next week!

Quarantine Sandwich

We started the week out with a quarantine. William was just getting over strep and on Saturday night Anne tested positive for it. That same night Sam had a rash all over his body (that ended up going away with some Benadryl, not sure what that allergic reaction was all about).  So, Sunday morning we decided to keep the whole family home from church and I kept the kids home from school on Monday.

After breakfast we had some reading time and some art time and some make a big mess of all the toys time.

It helped that it was raining. If we had to be home all day, at least the weather made it easier to be cozy together. Anne and Sam did try to go out in it. They quickly decided it was a bit too cold and didn't try that stunt again.

Sam did try this stunt which gave me a bit of a heart attack. He told me he was "Findin' his Queen car."

All that mischief built up his appetite. I had to document him eating because he so rarely will sit down and just eat. It's amazing this kid is as chunky he is the struggle that I have getting him to eat.

I mean, look at this. "Look! I doin' y-oo-ga!," he says. 

Another adventure of the week was when I buckled Sam into his seat Monday afternoon to take him for a little drive so he would fall asleep. A cozy day at home with all the kids means Mommy desperately needed nap time. Sooo ... I buckled him in, went to start the car and .... nothing. The battery was dead. Brandon came home to give the van a jump start. It is a huge pain because of our small garage, we had to push the van out of the garage onto our sloped driveway so the jumper cables would reach the hood. After getting the van started I asked if I wondered if I should drive it around before shutting it off again. Brandon thought we'd be alright so he went back to work and I went back inside to enjoy a few minutes of quiet time. Well, the next morning the van wouldn't start again, which I discovered right as we were supposed to be heading out to pick up our carpool for school. Luckily, their mom stepped in and got our kids to school and Brandon came once again to give the van a jump start. This time I learned my lesson and went for a drive before shutting it off. I drove up to Farr West and back. I was anxious to see how the painting was coming. When I got to the house I saw that the windows were all taped and there was a cloud of white mist in the garage. It was kind of strange and I assume it was because they were painting the mudroom or something like that. Needless to say, I didn't dare go inside. It was a fun little drive, nonetheless.

The rest of the week was pretty normal, in a our-life-is-so-not-normal-right-now kind of way. Friday finally came and along with it came our finally meeing with "the cabinet guys". Our first meeting was 5 months earlier on our anniversary. This time we needed to sign the final papers for cabinet design, countertops, and mantel.

And the most exciting moment of the day was deciding on those counter tops. The standard for our builder is a choice of about 7 different colors/styles of granite. We were never crazy about any of the choices that were offered, but settled on one that best went with our other color selections. It had a lot more black in it than we wanted, but what can you do? We knew that we'd be able to choose out of the remnants in the scrap yard for the bathrooms so we planned on doing that at this meeting on Friday. The kitchen, well, it was going to be a granite counter top. Grateful not picky, right? We'd already spent our upgrade money in other areas and didn't even consider upgrading here. Until ....

The first thing that caught my eye out in the yard was not a remnant at all, but a full beautiful slab that was exactly what I had hoped would be one of Castle Creeks standard selections (the middle gray-ish white one pictured above). Come to find out this was quartz. Quartz is an upgrade. Long story short, we went with the quartz. Brandon said it was the way my eyes lit up. The man loves me and wants me to be happy, what can I say? Do I need quartz to be happy? Nah, but it sure is a perk.

We also found remnants that we loved for the bathrooms. The sample picture above will be in the main and downstairs bathrooms. It's quartz, but no upgrade fee because it's from the scrap yard. Woohoo. We went with a lighter granite for the master bath.

As of Saturday, the house is completely painted. The cabinets are being built the first of this week and will be completely installed by Friday. My beautiful counter tops that I am now completely crushing on will be in the week after that. We are in the home stretch, it's beginning to feel more and more like reality.

So, here we are back at Sunday. We woke up with anticipation of going to church as a family for the first time in weeks. We were all busily getting ready for church. After getting myself dressed I went to assist Anne. Much to my dismay, when I helped her take off her nightgown I discovered her whole body was completely covered in little red spots. {sigh} 

And thus, the week was book ended with a quarantine. This time, at least, not for the entire family. Hopefully, when I check in next Sunday I'll be report that we all went to church together.

P.S. We self-diagnosed Anne with Fifth's Disease. 

Sickness, Houses, and Bears, Oh My!

Our New Years was kicked off with a very low key evening. Sparkling Apple Cider (We love us some Martinelli's!) was the only special item on the menu. We enjoyed some along with veggie straws from the pantry and some leftover birthday cake. After putting the Littles to bed we had a countdown at approximately 8:13 and proceeded to try out a new game gifted to us from Dan and Genni for Christmas. The game is called Robot Turtles and was a hit! The Bigs went to bed around 9:30 and Brandon and I sat down to watch a movie, although we were both tired enough to go right to bed. Turns out Brandon snoozed on the couch, I watched some chick flic on Netflix, and worked on a cross-stitch I was making for a friend. When midnight rolled around, I gave a little smile at the clock and continued stitching for a few minutes. And thus began the year 2015.

New Years Day

All the kiddos were much more excited about New Years Day then they were about New Years Eve because we had plans to use their Christmas Build-a-Bear gift cards. William had to get his new Toothless stuffed and he chose some new clothes for Army,born last year on his birthday. Marie and Anne both chose new cats and new outfits. Meet Sparkles (Anne's tiger) and Minky (the dark pink cat). Minky is sister to Pinky, born last year, also on William's birthday. William managed to make it through the excitement of the morning only to crash at Chick-Fil-A, where we stopped for lunch. He developed a fever by late afternoon and the next morning he tested positive for strep. It's a good thing he had his buddies to keep him company while he rested and recovered.

Goodbye Christmas

 Saturday the 3rd we said goodbye to what our kids deemed "The BEST Christmas Ever!" I was so relieved and grateful to hear that as the month of December felt like a whirlwind of craziness, plus just living in a temporary home we entered the season with dread. We worried so much that it would be hard to have Christmas somewhere other than our home true home. I learned a valuable lesson about Christmas this year. It isn't about where you are, ever. It is just about who you are with. The Spirit of the Season does not come in material things, not even in beautiful homes.

Sicknesses and Outings

 The next day Sammy came down with a stomach bug. I tell you what, we have been through the ringer with sicknesses the last few months. It's always something. This something led to Sam falling asleep on the couch in the middle of all the fun noise our family creates. He was definitely not feeling well.

Our Miss Marie and I snuck away from the sick house to fulfill the gift card she received for Christmas to Color Me Mine. She chose this cute vase and decided she wanted colorful polka dots all over it. We had so much fun creating it together. I'm so glad we gave her this gift. She's determined she wants to have her birthday party at the store. Luckily, we looked into it and it is quite reasonable priced. Looks like that will be the plan, unless she changes her mind over the next 10 months. Knowing her, I doubt she will.

FHE and Daily Happenings

 Speaking of our little artist, I put her to work making a chart to track our scripture reading. I found two charts online, one that tracks the chapters we have read and one that tracks each day that we have read. She glued them on orange paper and decorated it with her stamps that were given to her by Grandma Pulsipher for Christmas. Our family has been slowly working though the Book of Mormon over the past few years, only a few verses at a time. Now that Marie and William are both excellent at reading and Anne and Sam will sometimes contribute a couple of verses (with our help, of course) we decided we are going to step up our game. This year we are going to complete the Book of Mormon! We have plans to hike up to somewhere beautiful to finish the last couple of chapters. I am pretty excited about this goal!

 I had to document this moment because it is such an enigma to me. Why does Hungry, Hungry Hippos always create fights? Anne was so mad at Sam because he was mad at her because they both wanted all the marbles. You'd think they were the Hungry Hippos.

 Note to self: Chipotle Chili Pepper is very hot, as in picante. I made a delicious chili con queso to make into chili mac and it was way too spicy for the kids. We ended up with lots of leftovers.

House Update

 

The scaffolding has been up and around the house for a few weeks now with little bites taken here and there out of finishing the exterior. We were so excited to drive up and see that the stucco was finally finished! The last step is the soffit and fascia (That is the material that goes around the edge of the roof, like trim.) We love our brick and stucco combo, which is very relieving because that was a rather overwhelming process to decided what to do. The driveway was also laid and drying and there are tarps down, warming the ground to lay new sidewalk were construction equipment damaged the existing and to lay the sidewalk that we will lead to the steps up to the front porch.

On the inside we knew they had been completing all the finishing work this past week, baseboards, closets, trim, doors, and the railing/banister. We were expecting to see a completed banisted, but were very pleasantly surprised to see that it was also stained already! This was a thrilling moment for us! First of all, our kids can come in the house without us constantly having a panic attach about them being on the stairs and potentially falling. Also, we are at the point where the house is going to be "beautified" with all the elements we chose so many months ago. Our stain choice was a bit of an upgrade (American Walnut stain with black glaze) and we are so glad we did it! 

 I laugh at how many energy drinks and caffeinated drinks we find sitting on windowsills throughout the house every time we come to look at the progress, so I had to document it.

A peak at the master closet, this will be my side. There is a single hang section on Brandon's side where my dresses will go. That is a desk to the left that will be a little sewing nook for me.

A box full of brushed nickel hardware for all of our doors.

Taped off and ready for painting this week.

 The pile of trash in our garage. Construction is messy business, isn't it?